Washington, DC (Jan. 30, 2014) – The App Developers Alliance responded to a letter circulated today and signed by several large companies and patent trolls by reaffirming its support for expanding the Covered Business Method Program.

“Thousands of innovators, targeted by patent trolls leveraging poor quality patents to extort licensing fees under the threat of costly litigation, need relief," said Tim Sparapani, Vice President of Law, Policy, and Government Relations for the App Developers Alliance. "The majority of patent troll suits and demand letters cite method patents, and the average litigation takes years and costs more than $2 million. Tech startups and small businesses simply do not have that kind of time or money. It is reasonable and right to give them a less expensive, faster way to fight back.”

Sparapani added, "It is no surprise that trolls are opposing a better review process, but it is confounding for large corporations to stand with patent trolls while asking Congress for protection from them.”

About the Application Developers Alliance

The Application Developers Alliance is an industry association dedicated to meeting the unique needs of application developers as creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Alliance members include more than 30,000 individual application developers and more than 150 companies in the apps ecosystem.